A couple with six children 1650 - 1678

Editor: Here we have Jürgen Ovens' oil on canvas, "A couple with six children", from sometime between 1650 and 1678. It feels very posed, almost theatrical. All those eyes staring out at us. What do you make of it? Curator: It's a snapshot, isn’t it, or their version of one. Dutch Golden Age group portraits weren't just documentation, they were status statements. Look at the light on the silk gowns, the way the children are arranged almost like jewels. Tell me, does it feel…intimate? Or more like a carefully constructed tableau? Editor: Tableau definitely. It's hard to imagine them all relaxed and laughing. It feels a bit like a casting call, everyone showing their best profile. Curator: Exactly! Ovens, good painter that he was, still needed to flatter. But, you know, beyond the finery, I see a yearning. To be remembered, to solidify their place in the world and in history. Isn't that something we all share? The impulse to leave our mark? Editor: I hadn't thought about it like that. More than just showing off, they're reaching out to the future, hoping we see them, even now. Curator: That's it! It is funny isn’t it; a staged scene, yet profoundly human at its heart. Editor: Yeah, I was too quick to judge the "fakery" without seeing that shared humanity beneath it all. Thanks for that.